Paper Delivery to End; No Resumption Plan Set

NO WRITER ATTRIBUTED
January 23, 1981

On-campus delivery of the New York Times and The Boston Globe for undergraduates terminates today, but Harvard Student Agencies (HSA) has not yet decided whether it will establish a newspaper delivery service to replace Harvard Delivery News Service (HDNS).

Archie C. Epps III, dean of students, said yesterday that "no other alternatives to HSA are being considered at the moment."

Giving In

If HSA does decide to take over the service, delivery of the Times will probably not begin immediately because the newspaper may need time to transfer its business dealings with HDNS to another organization, Times officials said this week.

A letter delivered to Times and Globe subscribers yesterday gave notice of delivery service termination and promised refunds for spring-semester papers.

University officials under the auspices of Dean Fox contacted HSA about taking over HDNS last November, after deciding that Epps and the College were too closely involved with a student organization.

More Money

Last year HDNS held $14,000 in unaccounted-for check stubs and Epps used $2000 in College discretionary funds to aid the organization. Approximately $7000 of the missing funds was allegedly embezzled by Martin Olive '78-4, manager of HDNS until February of last year. Olive recently made restitution of $5000 to HDNS.

Epps said last fall that the College would not bail out HDNS in the future, but Coburn said last week that the College would take on the responsibility for paying off HDNS.

Can Do

After reviewing HDNS's financial records, College officials decided to dissolve HDNS and to ask HSA to take over on-campus newspaper delivery. The College also decided to take on the responsibility for paying off HDNS's debts, which a source estimated exceed $5000.

If HSA establishes a new delivery service, it will not inherit the debts, officials said, but Coburn said the College might require HSA to pay a fee for the right to set up a newspaper service.